Govt's total liabilities rise 2.6 pc to Rs 150.95 lakh cr in Q3 FY23

NEW DELHI: The government's total liabilities rose to Rs 150.95 lakh crore in the December quarter from Rs 147.19 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2022, according to the latest public debt management report.

The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.6 percent in October-December 2022-23.

In absolute terms, the total liabilities, including liabilities under the 'Public Account' of the government, jumped to Rs 1,50,95,970.8 crore at the end of December 2022.

As of September 30, the total liabilities stood at Rs 1,47,19,572.2 crore.

The report released by the finance ministry on Saturday said public debt accounted for 89 percent of the total outstanding liabilities in the December quarter, compared to 89.1 percent at the end of September.

Nearly 28.29 percent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of fewer than 5 years.

During Q3 of FY23, it said, the Centre raised an amount worth Rs 3,51,000 crore through dated securities, as against the notified amount of Rs 3,18,000 crore in the borrowing calendar.

During the quarter an amount of Rs 85,377.9 crore due for redemption was repaid on maturity date, it said.

Weighted average yield of primary issuances hardened to 7.38 per cent in Q3 FY23, from 7.33 per cent in Q2 of FY23, it added.

The weighted average maturity of new issuances of dated securities elongated to 16.56 years in Q3 of FY23, as compared to 15.62 years in Q2 of FY23.

During October-December 2022, it said, the government did not raise any amount through the Cash Management Bills.

The Reserve Bank did not conduct Open Market operations for government securities during the quarter.

The net daily average liquidity absorption by RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) including Marginal Standing Facility and Special Liquidity Facility was at Rs 39,604 crore during the quarter, the report said.

With regard to the yield, the report said, the interest rate on 10-year benchmark security softened from 7.40 percent at the close of the quarter on September 30, 2022, to 7.33 percent at the close on December 30, 2022, thus softening by 7 bps during the quarter.

On December 7, 2022, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to hike the policy repo rate by 35 bps, from 5.90 percent to 6.25 percent largely with an intention to contain inflation.

On February 8, the Reserve Bank hiked the key benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent, citing sticky core inflation.